


Free Time! Kiyondo Ishida

by AlmondBlossomsTC



Category: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Gen, half a character study, half self indulgence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-07-27 18:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20050738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmondBlossomsTC/pseuds/AlmondBlossomsTC
Summary: Ishida never got free time events and that's an absolute crime. Here's my take on what they could have been.





	1. FTE 1

**Author's Note:**

> so i vomited this out in like an hour and i have ideas for the rest but we'll see

_ I have some free time… I don’t want to just sit here. Who should I spend time with? _

It was a dilemma Makoto often found himself faced with. It was odd, now, thinking of something like that after everything that had taken place in the past days. Losing Sayaka and Leon had been hard enough. Losing Chihiro and Mondo, who he’d been getting closer to as they spent more time trapped together, was a new kind of awful. And...now they’d as good as lost Taka, as well.

The discovery of Alter Ego had sent the hall monitor off the deep end. He’d completely changed, calling himself Ishida, storming around and laughing an awful mockery of Taka’s old laugh. He’d gone from stern and emotional to just plain unhinged.

But...maybe that was all the more reason Makoto should spend some time with him. He hadn’t gotten a chance to try and console Taka immediately after...that. Mondo’s execution. 

It had been like watching two people die. 

At least this...Ishida...had brought some life back to Taka. Maybe it wasn’t how he used to be, but - were any of them, now?

Makoto slapped his thighs and stood up from his bed, resolved now. He would go and check on Taka! He didn’t feel confident at all that he’d be able to figure out what was going on with the other boy, but he could at least offer some comfort.

-

He found Taka in one of the empty classrooms on the first floor, seated stiffly at a desk. While Makoto watched from the hall, he kicked back in his chair with such force that he almost fell over, putting his feet up on the desktop and holding himself unnaturally. Yeah, this didn’t feel right.

Makoto knocked on the doorframe out of habit and almost jumped out of his skin when Taka whipped around. Taka launched himself out of the chair with such force that it clattered to the ground - they both flinched - and then stood there looking at Makoto for a moment too long.

When he did speak, it was in a snarl. “What the hell do you want, Naegi? Can’t you see I’m busy?”

_ Busy with what? _ Makoto tried to smile anyway, replying, “Sorry! I thought we could hang out for a bit, if you wanted. Is that okay?”

When he’d asked Taka before, the prefect had been only too happy to spend some time together, wandering - marching, more like - through the abandoned halls of Hope’s Peak, or tidying up the kitchen, or doing an easy workout in the fitness rooms that they all now avoided like the plague. Now, he hesitated.

“I wanted to be alone with myself...but, if you’re asking…” Taka rubbed at the back of his head, grimacing. “Sure, eff it. Let’s hang out!”

He laughed quite suddenly. Makoto found himself experiencing some regret, but squashed it down.

Under Taka’s urging, they took off on a too-fast walk through the hallways of the school. Makoto wasn’t much shorter than the prefect, but it was enough that he found himself having to dash to catch up every so often. Every time, Taka would snap back at him, “No running, dumbass!” Then pick up speed and keep going, breathing erratically.

Makoto gave up just after the stairs took them to the newly opened third floor. “Wait, hang on, Taka-” he panted, then yelped when Taka rounded on him.

“Don’t effing call me that! I’m not him!” There was something raw in Taka’s angry expression. 

“Sorry! Um…”

“Ishida! Kiyondo Ishida!”

“What?” Kiy-ondo… Ishi-da. Makoto felt a little sick.

“Whatever! Why’re we stopping? We gotta patrol!”

Makoto let that slide, laughing nervously. “I, uh - I just remembered! I got something earlier that I thought you might like!” He rifled through his pockets and pulled out, at random, a balled-up pair of slippers with wheels in the heel. He’d gotten a similar set from the Monomono machine earlier and given them to Chihiro. They’d both had a good laugh about it, taking it in turns to skate clumsily around, before Makoto had sent the slippers off with Chihiro and headed off to visit someone else.

It was a good memory. When he’d gotten another set, he’d meant to give them to Mondo for another laugh, but hadn’t found the time. They were quite clearly too big for Taka, and he went to look for something else in his pockets, but Taka had already taken the roller slippers out of his hands and was looking at them blankly, muttering.

“Why would I-? These seem so pointless. But I suppose... We could, maybe. I don’t like them, but I think _ I  _ do.” His expression was strange. Almost vacant, but still intense. Taka had always been intense, but since his…’reawakening’...

“They could be kinda fun!” Makoto tried, weakly. “You could use them on...patrol? To get around quicker, but without running?”

It seemed as though Taka had forgotten he was there, the way he flinched when Makoto spoke. But he replied readily, “These aren’t up to uniform standards. But on my personal time...maybe?” 

There was a pause where Taka kept muttering to himself and Makoto wasn’t sure what to say. But as Taka nodded resolutely and stowed the slippers, he found his voice.

“Are you okay?” he blurted, making Taka’s head snap up and his expression turn hunted. “You haven’t really been...yourself.”

Taka laughed that terrible laugh again. His old laugh had been, Makoto would freely admit, pretty dorky - yelling out ‘ha ha ha!’ like a cartoon character. Now, it was more strangled, as though it didn’t want to leave his throat but he was forcing it out. 

“Don’t be stupid, Naegi! I’ve never been  _ more _ myself! I’m me! How can I be anything but myself?” He bared his teeth in an oddly confrontational smile. “I’m Kiyondo Ishida! Nothing less!”

Taka… no, Makoto decided. If he wanted to be called that… “Kiyondo, huh? And...is that okay?”

For whatever reason, Taka- Ishida did seem to relax somewhat when Makoto addressed him like that. For the first time, he met Makoto’s eyes. 

“Of course that’s okay! I’m me! There’s nothing wrong with that- I’m strong, stronger than I’ve ever been. I’ve learned how to really- ...really be strong.”

Makoto wasn’t sure where Ishida was going with this. He just seemed to start with a topic and then descend into rambling to himself, always sounding sort of angry. There wasn’t really anywhere for Makoto to fit himself into the conversation, but he still tried.

“Nothing is wrong anymore. We’re going to get out, right? I’m going to live. I effing lived! We- We’ll all live! And get out of here! There won’t be any more killing!”

“I think that’s right! It’s important to have hope-”

“You said it, Naegi! Ha ha! As long as we stay together, I can do this! We all can. How can we stop another murder from effing happening?! We can trust our friends - can we?”

“Of course! That’s the only way!”

“Yes! Hell yes, we have to trust each other, darn it!” Finally, Ishida looked up at Makoto again, eyes sparking.

“It was good for all of us to hang out! Let’s do it again!” The prefect grinned, still looking  _ off _ , punched Makoto on the arm, and speedwalked away. It looked as though he was continuing his odd patrol. Makoto noticed he was walking awkwardly, and had one hand jammed in his pocket - the same one the slippers had vanished into.

_ Ishida seemed to enjoy himself. You feel like that went pretty strangely. _


	2. Chapter 2

_ Looks like I have some free time. What should I do? _

Makoto felt a little conflicted. Everyone had taken a little time to themselves after the second trial, but were all drifting back together after a few days had passed. He really wanted to go spend time with Hina and Sakura, or maybe go pester Kyoko to see if Alter Ego had revealed anything to her, but…

He was worried. Worried about Taka...or, Ishida, now. 

Ishida showed up for meals sporadically now, but seemed to rarely actually eat. He spent most of his time hollering at anyone who looked at him funny or ‘patrolling’ the hallways at a brisk walk, kicking things out of his path only to carefully right them on his way back. Kirigiri kept having to chase him away from the bathhouse changeroom. At least with her, he’d back down once she told him off. Hifumi was another story. Makoto had found Ishida yelling at the artist twice now. Nothing ever got more physical than a raised fist, but the other students had an unspoken agreement to try and keep the two away from each other.

When Hifumi whined at Ishida once, “You always get so mad at meeee! Blame Miss Kirigiri - she’s the one keeping us away!”, Makoto really did think it may have come to blows.

“Tch! Blamin’ a chick - it’s fine to get mad at you for breaking the rules! I don’t fight girls! Anyone who raises a hand to a woman is scum!”

It was haunting.

Resolved, Makoto pushed open the door to his room and set off to find the hall monitor. At worst, he could stop Ishida from terrorizing the other students for a while. But apart from that, he might have a decent idea...

-

It turned out he was right. He found Ishida lecturing a mutinous-looking Toko at high volume.

“Care must be taken with the books in the library! What are ya, some kind of- inconsiderate dumbass?”

“I-I thought you didn’t yell at girls?!”

“I’m not yelling! I-”

Makoto thought it was time to step in. “Ishida!”

Toko slunk off the instant Ishida turned to look at him. After barely a glance, the hall monitor scolded, still at the same high volume, “Naegi! Your effin’ shoe is untied! Don’t you know-”

“So!” Makoto cut him off, holding up the brown paper bag he’d brought. “I noticed you haven’t been eating with us as much, so I brought you some lunch!”

Successfully derailed, Ishida looked at him blankly for a moment. “We shouldn’t be eating outside of the dining hall,” he started hesitantly, but his nostrils flared tellingly. Makoto hadn’t seen him at breakfast that day.

“It’s fine if it’s on a desk in one of the classrooms, right? We can clean up after!” Makoto encouraged, trying to herd Ishida over to one of the open classroom doors. The other boy went fairly willingly, though he flinched back from Makoto’s guiding hand. As Ishida watched suspiciously, Makoto pulled two chairs up to the same desk, opposite one another, and started taking food out of the bag - he’d clumsily made them two bentos, using what few foods he actually knew how to cook.

He sat down and offered a pair of chopsticks to Kiyondo. “See?” he coaxed, indicating the other chair. “It’s like a picnic!”

“Tch.” Ishida sat, holding himself rigidly. He made no move to open his box until Makoto did, but once he saw the fried rice and veggies inside, he started shovelling the food into his mouth as though he was unable to stop.  _ Well, at least he’s eating. _

Ishida finished off his entire bento before Makoto could eat his salad. It almost looked like he was going to start licking the bowl that held the miso if Makoto didn’t do something, so he started with, “Kiyondo-!”

“Yeah?”

“Um.” He realized he didn’t really know what to talk about, and so he started with the first idea that popped into his head. 

“What do you think you’ll do once we get out of here?”

Ishida’s face, which was normally twisted into whatever exaggerated emotion he happened to be feeling - a huge, snarling smile, or a frightening anger, or sneering contempt - went instantly blank. He looked like he had after the trial, before finding Alter Ego. Empty. 

But only for a moment.

“Exactly what I said, man!” he laughed. “You gonna finish your grub?”

Makoto pushed his half-finished bento across the table, thinking.  _ Exactly what he said… _ Because of course, he’d asked the question to both Mondo and Taka before. Taka’s dream was one that he probably would have been able to guess; it made sense that the hall monitor and class rep would be wanting to go into politics, but his motivation had been a surprise. He’d told Taka that he believed in his hope to become the prime minister and rebuild his family legacy, and Taka hugged him tight and tearfully thanked him for being his friend - one of very few, it sounded like. Mondo’s dream had been more of a shock.

_ “I wanna do something with my hands, man. I wanna build shit instead of breaking it. I might try out being a carpenter or something. But I bet that sounds dumb as hell, coming from some deliquent like me, ey?” _

_ “Of course not! I think it’s a good idea! I bet you’d be a great carpenter, Mondo. _

_ “Heh. You’re a good guy, Naegi. You still better come ride with me after we ditch this shithole.” _

Makoto hated this place. All the more reason to keep looking for a way to end the killing game and escape.

But that still left the matter of what exactly Ishida wanted. Whose dream would it be?

“Can you tell me a little more about it?” Makoto asked, and watched as Kiyondo swallowed his last bite and considered.

And considered. His eyebrows drew together. He looked blank again, almost confused. Without a word, he pushed his (Makoto’s) lunch away.

“I guess I can do anything, right? I can be anything I want. If we make it out.” He sounded more lucid than he had in days. More human. “I don’t have any of my old responsibilities. My old name- my old goals- they don’t matter. I have myself. That’s all. And that’s all I need.”

“Ishimar-”

“Don’t.” He sounded calm, but stern. Before, Makoto was sure he would have growled it. “That name is nothing. Nothing I used to be matters anymore. I am what I am now. That’s what’s important.”

Still looking contemplative, he stood, and bowed. 

“Thank you for lunch, Naegi! You’ve given me a lot to think about! I’ll clean these up!”

“Wait, I-”

But Ishida didn’t listen as he gathered up the empty bento boxes into the bag and strode out of the classroom. Makoto tried to follow, but his shoelace caught on the leg of the chair, and he fell as he saw the other boy disappear down the hall. 

_ You managed to make Ishida eat something, but you don’t know if he really enjoyed himself... _


End file.
